Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘John Edwards’

Welcome New York Times (and Wonkette) readers

Yesterday John Tierney in the New York Times quoted me calculating that the $2.4 million that the Democrats paid for general liability insurance for their four-day convention amounted to roughly $500 per delegate/alternate, or about $120 per day apiece. My suggested line for Sen. John Edwards’s acceptance speech: “I’m worth it.” (John Tierney and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Rehabilitating the L-Word”, New York Times, Jul. 29). For more on the Democrats’ insurance bill (they paid an extra $86,000, on top of the $2.4 million, to add terrorism coverage), see “Democrats’ Insurance Coverage To Top $2.6m For Convention”, Bestwire (A.M. Best & Co.), Jul. 12.

Also welcome to readers of Wonkette, which picked up the item (Jul. 29). I should point out, however, that contrary to the site’s description of me I’m not a lawyer.

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Suffer the Poor

The practice of obstetrics is not easy. Doctors who deliver babies face long, late hours, life-threaatening complications that can spring up in a split second without warning, and the constant threat of litigation for events beyond their control. Now, the malpractice crisis is making it even harder, with doctors in crisis states like Pennsylvania finding themselves in a manpower crunch thanks to the exodus of obstetricians from the state. Not only are doctors leaving, but hospitals are shutting down their obstetrics departments:

According to the 2003 American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Survey on Medical Liability, 12.5 percent of OB/GYNs in Pennsylvania have stopped practicing OB and 57.5 percent have made some change in their practice because of issues with affordability or availability of liability coverage, including relocating, retiring, dropping OB, reducing number of deliveries, reducing amount of high-risk OB care, or reducing gynecological surgical procedures.

Those statistics, however, do not come close to revealing the extent of the current problem of obstetrician supply in the five-county Philadelphia region, which lost 25 percent of its staffed OB beds between 1993 and 2003, according to Delaware Valley Healthcare Council President Andrew Wigglesworth. Within the past 18 to 24 months, he says, the region lost 10 hospital OB departments, including those at MCP, Methodist, Nazareth, Warminster, Mercy Fitzgerald, Episcopal and Elkins Park; while OB services were also lost from hospital closures including City Line, Sacred Heart in Norristown and Community Hospital in Chester.

That means longer hours and a greater proportion of riskier cases for the hospitals and doctors who remain. Which means they’re more prone to errors. It also means that they can no longer spread themselves as thinly as they once did. Hospitals that once staffed inner city public health clinics are can no longer spare the staff to do so, leaving the poor without easily accessible prenatal care. Remember that the next time you hear John Edwards say that he has spent his career helping the down and out.

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Cerebral Palsy Turn Around

Michigan’s Supreme Court overturned a $21 million verdict in the kind of case that made John Edwards the man he is today. The Court ruled 6-1 that the basis of the jury’s decision in the original 1997 trial was faulty, because the expert witness testimony was faulty. Not that this means that the courts now recognize that cerebral palsy is rarely caused by birth injuries. Rather, the lower court failed to allow the defense an opportunity to object to the admission of the expert’s testimony. (An expert that they maintained had “novel” theories about the origin of cerebral palsy.) Still, it might be a step in the right direction toward correcting much that’s wrong with today’s malpractice litigation – “experts” who aren’t really experts.

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Pro bono: being fair to Edwards

A Washington Times editorial asserts that John Edwards during his career as a plaintiff’s lawyer “took no pro bono cases”, which if true might expose him to obloquy and also could put him into conflict with the ABA’s Model Rule on the subject (“The science of malpractice”, Jul. 25; see KipEsquire, Jul. 25). Tucker Carlson voiced the same charge on CNN “Crossfire” Jan. 12 (transcript).
But is the charge accurate? In a quick search on “John Edwards” + “pro bono”, the most prominent article to turn up is Adam Liptak’s Jul. 14 New York Times piece, “Edwards’s Lawyerly Style Drew Fierce Foes and Fans”, which phrases things rather differently: “Mr. Edwards handled no notable pro bono cases, the typical vehicle for lawyers who want to have a larger impact.” (emphasis added). The difference is potentially significant, since an attorney might devote considerable effort to pro bono work without handling any court cases that his colleagues might recognize as notable (say, because they sought to shape the course of the law).

No doubt we’ll be hearing more about the nature and scope of Edwards’ pro bono efforts as the campaign proceeds. In the mean time, those of us who are skeptical of his candidacy should be careful not to let our criticisms run ahead of the available evidence.

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In the Kerry skyboxes

Unlike his running mate John Edwards, John Kerry has willingly disclosed the identities of his “bundlers”, the financiers responsible for raising large amounts of money in grouped donations. (He has 266 who’ve come in at the $100,000+ level, compared with more than 525 for George W. Bush.) Names familiar to readers of this site are well represented: “Trial lawyers who represent injured people in suits against business are prominent Kerry fans. Among his $100,000 Vice Chairmen are Florida plaintiff’s lawyer Kirk Wager, who hosted Mr. Kerry’s first presidential fund-raiser at his Coconut Grove home in December 2002, and attorneys Richard Scruggs of Mississippi and John Coale of Washington, both part of the tobacco companies’ $206 billion settlement with 46 states.” However, Mr. Kerry (like Mr. Bush, but unlike Mr. Edwards) also raises large amounts from other types of law firms, including firms known for lobbying and for general business work, including Mintz Levin and Piper Rudnick. (Wayne Slater, “Vested interests in Kerry”, Dallas Morning News, Jul. 25).

“Lawyers, especially trial lawyers, are the engine of the Kerry fundraising operation,” reports the Washington Post. “Lawyers and law firms have given more money to Kerry, $12 million, than any other sector. One out of four of Kerry’s big-dollar fundraisers is a lawyer, and one out of 10 is an attorney for plaintiffs in personal injury, medical malpractice or other lawsuits seeking damages. …

“Among the trial lawyers who raised money for Kerry early in the campaign were Michael V. Ciresi of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP, who represented Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota in its successful $6.5 billion suit against the tobacco industry, and Michael T. Thorsnes, who recently retired from his San Diego law firm after winning $250 million in settlements and verdicts.” After Kerry locked up the race, “One trend was a sharp increase in the number of trial lawyers joining the Kerry fundraising campaign. Among those soon joining as major fundraisers were John P. Coale, one of the nation’s most prominent trial lawyers, whose better-known cases include the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India, and at least 16 plane crashes; Robert L. Lieff, founding partner of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, a San Francisco-based firm that lists four class-action settlements in 2004 alone totaling $176.5 million; and San Francisco lawyer Arnold Laub, whose firm Web site lists its participation in the $3.7 billion fen-phen settlement, a $185 million toxic chemical award and $4.5 million for a pedestrian accident case. … John Morgan, an Orlando lawyer whose firm specializes in medical malpractice, said he has helped raise more than $500,000 for Kerry.” (Thomas B. Edsall, James V. Grimaldi and Alice R. Crites, “Redefining Democratic Fundraising”, Washington Post, Jul. 24)(our politics archive).

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Abusive litigation, with a Bush imprimatur

Despite Republican pronouncements critical of overreaching litigation, the Bush Department of Justice has insisted on pursuing the racketeering lawsuit against cigarette makers that it inherited from the Clinton people (May 29, more). “Until the president does something about the DOJ’s rogue $280 billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry, cries about John Edwards’ trial lawyer connections will ring hollow.” (Steven Milloy (Cato Institute), “Injustice at the Justice Department”, FoxNews.com Views, Jul. 9). More: Vanessa Blum, “Drowning in Paper”, Legal Times, Mar. 18.

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The men behind Edwards

I’ve got an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal arguing that the scariest thing about John Edwards (see Feb. 19 and many other links on this site) is the “tightly organized fund-raising and electoral machine” he has constructed most of whose key backers “are drawn from the tiny handful of tort lawyers even more successful than he”. In particular, four of the most powerful men behind Edwards — Fred Baron, John O’Quinn, Tab Turner, and Paul Minor — personify in various ways some of the most objectionable features of today’s personal-injury litigation scene. (Walter Olson, “Edwards & Co.”, Jul. 12, paid subscribers only)(free OpinionJournal.com version).

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